Ha-Ha! A female is the same in any world! When facing a problem, she always resorts to powdering her nose or putting on lipstick.-Wannabe world-conquering alien shortly before Bat-Girl gives him his comeuppance; Batman: 153 (1963)

October 17, 2003

Aquaman 16-27 (1996)

I didn't get the annual that came out during this year. It was a "Legends of the Dead Earth" theme, a theme which DC failed to sell me on.

Note: Only when indexing did I realize that this series used rotating artists without explanation. Some issues by Marty Egeland (not to my taste) and some by J. Calafiore (adequate but unexceptional). Why DC won't give any Aquaman series a top-notch artist is a mystery to me since they seem to have an interest in the viability of the character.

Issues 16 through 25 are one loooooong drawn out storyline in which Aquaman knows what is going on but won't tell anyone else or the readers. Remember the Silver Age when every character would explain everything down to the tiniest detail by the end of each issue? That was overly contrived, but so is the issues long silence which can really only have one result – an annoyed reader. Note the difference between intrigued and annoyed.

Essentially, Aquaman kicks around and picks up allies in some other realms. Those allies and a horde of other underwater characters fight Kordax and some alien menace in issue 25. With so much going on, David fails to get the basic idea of what's going on across. Thus, the dramatic impact is minimal. The reason for throwing in a tremendously large supporting cast is never clear. One character, named Spought but pronounced Spot is there only because David thinks that is funny. Seriously. That appears to be the only reason pages and pages are spent on this guy. The blood is rushing to my head. Must calm down. David also brings back the characters from the first Aquaman mini, but declares the events of the mini were a dream. I have no problem with that sort of revisionist continuity if there is a reason, but I couldn’t figure out what it was here. Then again, just a week or so after reviewing it, I already forget what happened in that first, horrifyingly dull, mini. Tsunami and Neptune Perkins make their first appearance in modern time. Neptune Perkins is a senator. Tsunami hasn't aged. Atlan knows why. We don’t yet (and never do find out). Perkins and Tsunami have a daughter named Deep Blue, who wears either skin tight blue costume or who is nude and has the power to make sea creatures grow larger. We know this funny because David reminds us constantly especially when the youngest Sea Devil keeps hitting on her. Despite that, Tsunami, Neptune Perkins and Deep Blue do cacth my interest and plausibly belong in the series. Atlan and Arion get a lot of play. Ho hum. Let’s put a “who is the most boring character” poll on the site. Those two guys need to be on it. Aqualad returns with his new powers. That's good. Power Girl joins in because for a few years it was decided to tie her origin in with Atlan, since he's such a tremendously popular fabulous and spectacularly fascinating character. Power Girl belongs in Aquaman like Ambush Bug belongs in the Watchmen. One issue is a fight with the JLA. Line-up: John Jonzz, Wonder Woman, Fire, Ice, Guy Gardner and Obsidian. That was a JLA line-up. Weary sigh.

Issues 26-27 were much better than the long storyline. A Japanese businessman that Aquaman beat early in the series gets revenge by killing dolphins. Aquaman refuses to let Japan use the ocean until they turn the guy over. A good villain and a good sense of how powerful Aquaman can be.

First reviewed via e-mail 9/2/03. Revised for blog.

Posted by H at October 17, 2003 09:33 AM

Comments

why wont google give me my anwsers to my science home work it works better at school than at my home pleasem try to fix ths i am getting very angry. i types in tsunami and i got this thise is not the right thing so here is my comment to you and your comany GET THE OFF GOOGLE I HATE THIS SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I gotta go with u stink here. Google never gives me the answers I need either. For example, I searched for the answer to the question "Why am I so cool?" All I got was a blog entry about some other dude. Surely I don't kick so much ass because of another guy and his computer. Google, you suck. Aquaman, well, he kinda sucks too. :-)